1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an impact tool for removing electrical contact elements from connectors, circuit boards, and the like.
2. The Prior Art
The use of terminal pins and posts in the electrical equipment is old and well established. In recent years it has become common practice, when terminal pins and posts are required, to provide bodies of dielectric or insulating material to support and carry the pins or posts. The pin supporting bodies are provided with through openings in which the pins or posts are engaged. Originally the pins and posts were press fitted into the openings in the body but, due to the tendency for such a connection to fail, various types of locking means have been developed. Most practical and widely used means for retaining such pins or posts in their related openings in the carrier bodies have involved a stop flange in the opening in the body, a cooperating stop shouder on the pin or post to engage one side of the flange and a snap ring or like expansable element or part on the pin to engage the other side of the flange. In such structures the snap ring or expansable part on the pin or post occurs within the opening in which the pin is engaged and is not accessible. As a result of this relationship of parts it is frequently impossible to remove such pins or posts from their carrier bodies without damage to the bodies or without the aid of specially constructed removal tools which can be inserted into the annulus normally occuring between the pin and the wall of the opening in which the pin is engaged and which will collapse or compress the snap ring or member to make it impossible to remove the pin.
There are a number of well known tools that are useful in both inserting and extracting tapered pin electrical contacts of the type discussed above. Examples of these tools may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,960,864; 2,962,807; 2,976,608; and 3,135,147.